Bottle rinser



1962 v. A. SARIOTTI ETAL 3,064,663

BOTTLE RINSER Filed NOV. 22, 1961 INVENTORS V/CTOR A. SAP/07' 77 BY ARTHUR J TONNA War Z41 A 7' TORNEYS 3,064,663 BOTTLE RtNSER Victor A. Sariotti, Daly City, and Arthur J. Tonna, San Francisco, Calif., assignors to Bnrgermeister Brewing Corporation, San Francisco, Calif., a corporation of California Filed Nov. 22, 1961, Ser. No. 154,202 Claims. (Cl. 134125) This invention relates to the cleaning of containers, and more particularly to a conveyor and rinser system whereby glass bottles may be internally rinsed and drained while they are being moved at a substantially high rate of travel.

The essential object of the invention is to provide, as a part of an overall conveyor system adapted for the high speed movement of botties from a cleaning station to a filling station, an intermediate rinsing station adapted to internally rinse and gravity drain said bottles without necessitating a slow down in the rate of travel of said bottles between said cleaning and filling stations.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawing forming part of this specification, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in vertical section taken along the longitudinal axis of the rinser portion of the bottle conveyor and rinser system; and

FIG. 2 is a plan view taken along the lines 22 of FIG. 1, showing the details of the input and output feed conveyors for the rinser portion of the system.

With reference to the drawing, the rinser portion of the system comprises a belt 16 having a plurality of rows of spaced aligned apertures 12 adapted to receive and to frictionaiiy retain the upper ends, or neck portions, 14 of bottles 16. Belt is trained around a pair of spaced apart driver wheels 18, secured to shaft 26, which engage the belt outwardly of the rows of apertures 12, and a pair of spaced apart idler wheels 22, secured to shaft 24, which likewise engage the belt outwardly of the rows of apertures 12. Belt 10 has its lower reach supported by rollers 26 and 28, with the wheels 18 and roller 26 directing the bottle receiving portion 36 of the belt therebetween in a downwardly inclined attitude in the direction of movement of the belt, and with the wheels 22 and roller 28 directing the bottle discharging portion 32 of the belt therebetween in an upwardly inclined attitude in the direction of movement of the belt.

A stationary supporting surface 34 is provided for the bottles 16. Means indicated broadly at 36 in FIG. 2 are provided to move the unrinsed bottles along surface 34 beneath belt portion 36 and in timed relation therewith. Said bottles, which move in the same direction as said belt portion, have their neck portions 14 pressed through belt apertures 12. After the bottles become thus engaged with belt 16 they are moved by the belt, in coniunction with a fixedly positioned arcuate guide member 36, to an inverted position. In such position, they travel along the upper reach of belt 10, where rinse water from a conduit and nozzle system indicated generally at 4%) rinses out the interiors of the bottles, and where the bottles are thereafter gravity-drained.

The bottles are then moved by the belt, in conjunction with a fixedly positioned arcuate guide member 42, to a normal upright position on surface 34. As the bottles become disengaged from the upwardly inclined belt portion 32, the function of moving them further is taken over by means indicated broadly at 42 in FIG. 2.

The unrinsed bottles travel toward the belt 10 in two rows defined by outer guide rails 44 and inner guide rail 46. The inner rail terminates in two arcuately divergent portions 48 which serve to move the two rows of bottles Patented Nov. 20, 1962 apart and, in conjunction with divergent portions 49 of the outer rails 44, serve to move each row of bottles into the receiving end of bottle moving and indexing means 36. Each means 36 comprises a pair of shaft-mounted toothed sprockets 56, one an idler and the other a driver, a chain 52 trained around and in mesh with the sprockets 56, spaced arms 54 carried by the chain 52, a straight portion 56 of outer guide rail 44, and a semi-circular portion 58 of outer guide rail. Each means 36 thereby serves to reverse the direction of movement of one row of bottles 180 and to bring the row into underlying relation with a row of belt apertures 24.

The rinsed bottles, upon leaving belt portion 32, are picked up for movement by the two alike means 42, one for each row of bottles, turned through 180', and fed into the converging ends of paths defined by outer guide rails 69 and inner guide rails 62. Each means 42 comprises a pair of shaft-mounted toothed sprockets 64, one an idler and the other a driver, a chain 66 trained around and in mesh with the sprockets 64, spaced arms 63 carried by the chain 66, a straight portion extension 69 of an outer guide rail 66, and a reversely turned portion 70 of rail 66.

As above described, the conveyor and rinser system of the invention changes the direction of movement of the bottles four different times. The means 36 effects a horizontal reversal of movement of the bottles. The left hand end of belt 16 then effects a vertical reversal of movement of the bottles prior to their rinsing and draining. The right hand endof belt 16 then turns the bottles through 180 with reference to a vertical plane. Lastly, and with reference to a horizontal plane, the means 42 turn the bottles through 180 so that they are traveling in the same direction as originally and in a continuation of the original path.

What is claimed is:

1. A conveyor and rinser system for containers open at one end comprising acontinuous belt having upper and lower reaches, rotative means for supporting and driving said belt mounted on horizontal shafts, spaced apart and aligned apertures formed in said belt adapted to receive the open ends of said containers, a supporting surface for said containers disposed beneath said belt, means training the leading portion of the lower reach of said belt downwardly from a point where it is above the open ends of the containers on said supporting surface to a point where it is below said ends of said containers, thereby enabling the open ends of said containers to be inserted into said belt apertures, means training the trailing portion of the lower reach of said belt upwardly from a point where it is below the open ends of the containers on said supporting surface to a point Where it is above said ends of said containers, thereby enabling separation of said containers from said belt apertures, arcuate guide means to maintain said containers in attached relation to said belt as they are moved upwardly and downwardly by said belt, and liquid spray discharge means disposed below the upper reach and above the lower reach of said belt and operable to spray rinsing liquid into the interiors of said containers as they move in inverted position along the upper reach of said belt.

2. The conveyor and rinser system of claim 1, including means for feeding a row of containers on said supporting surface beneath the leading portion of the lower reach of said belt and for moving said containers in timed relation with said belt and in registering alignment with apertures formed in said belt, and means for receiving and for moving the containers along said supporting surface as they become disengaged from the trailing portion of the lower reach of said belt.

3. A conveyor and rinser system for containers open at one end comprising a continuous belt having upper and lower reaches, rotative means for supporting and driving aligned apertures formed in said belt adapted to receive the open ends of said containers, means for feeding a row of containers beneath the leading portion of the lower reach of said belt into alignment with said apertures, means for relatively moving said containers and said leading belt portion toward each other to engage the open ends of said containers within said belt apertures, guide means to prevent disengagement of the containers from said apertures as the containers are moved upwardly to an inverted position, liquid spray discharge means disposed below the upper reach and above the lower reach of said belt and operable to spray'rinsing liquid into the interiors of said containers as they move in inverted position along the upper reach of said belt, guide means to prevent disengagement of the containers from said apertures as the containers are moved downwardly to a reverted position, means for relatively moving said containers and the trailing portion of the lower reach of said belt away from each other to disengage the open ends of said containers from' said belt apertures, and means for receiving and conveying said containers after their disengagement from the belt.

4. A conveyor and rinser system for containers open at one end comprising a continuous belt having upper and lower reaches, rotativemeans for supporting and driving said belt mounted on horizontal shafts, a pair of parallel rows of spaced apart and aligned apertures formed in said belt adapted to receive and grippingly engage the open ends'of said containers, a supporting surface for said containers disposed beneath the lower reach of said belt, first guide and conveyor means for moving a pair of adjacent rows of unrinsed containers onto said surface in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of the lower reach of said belt, second guide and conveyor means acegeea for diverging said rows of containers and re-directing' direction of movement to engage the open ends of said containers in said apertures, arcuate guide means at each end of said belt operable to maintain said containers in attached relation to said belt as they are moved upwardly to an inverted position and downwardly to a reverted position, liquid spray discharge means positioned to discharge rinsing liquid into the interiors of said containers as they move in inverted position along the upper reach of said belt, means for guiding the trailing portion of the lower reach of said belt angularly upwardly in its direction of movement to disengage the open ends of said containers from said belt apertures, third guide and conveyor means for receiving said disengaged containers, for divergingthe rows thereof outwardly, and for re-directing them through into adjacent parallel relation, and fourth guide and conveyor means for moving the pair of adjacent rows of to the direction of movement of the lower reach of said belt.

5. A conveyor and rinser system for containers open at one end comprising a continuous belt having upper and lower reaches, rotative means for supporting and driving said belt mounted on horizontal shafts, spaced apart and aligned apertures formed in said belt adapted to receive and grippingly engage the open ends of said containers, means for inserting the open ends of containers into said belt apertures along the leading portion of the lower reach a of said belt, means for maintaining said containers in at-r rinse liquid into the interiors of said containers as the containers are moved by the upper reach of the belt in inverted position, and means for efiecting removal of said containers from said belt along the trailing portion of the lower reach of said belt.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

